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June 30th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
The Biden administration has reiterated its support for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The controversial interpretation conflates antisemitism with legitimate criticism of Israel.
The IHRA working definition was formally adopted by the Trump administration in 2018. In April a group of Democratic House members, three of them Jewish, sent Secretary of State Tony Blinken a letter urging Biden’s team to consider alternatives to the IHRA’s working definition. The letter, which was led by Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, suggested two different definitions: The Nexus Document and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Both of these allow for broader criticism of Israel.
The letter (which was also signed by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI), Andy Levin (D-MI), Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) was sent to Blinken just a month after he told American Zionist Movement President Richard Heideman that the Biden administration “enthusiastically embraces” the IHRA definition.
Schakowsky’s letter did not actually condemn the IHRA definition, but suggested that the Nexus Document and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism be used as tools alongside it. “These two efforts are the work of hundreds of scholars and experts in the fields of antisemitism, Israel and Middle East Policy, and Jewish communal affairs, and have been helpful to us as we grapple with these complex issues,” it read. “We believe that the Administration should, in addition to the IHRA definition, consider these two important documents as resources to help guide your thinking and actions when addressing issues of combatting antisemitism.”
Last week Rep. Schakowsky received a response from the Biden administration. It does not address the two alternatives at all and merely reiterates Biden’s support for the IHRA definition.
“The Department agrees that it is crucial that governments and publics are able to recognize anti-Semitism in its many forms, traditional and contemporary, so that we can call hate by its proper name and take effective action,” wrote Acting Assistant Secretary Naz Durakoğlu from the Bureau of Legislative Affairs. “To those ends, like prior U.S. administrations of both political parties, the Biden Administration embraces and champions the IHRA non-legally binding working definition of anti-Semitism in its entirety, including its examples, and the Administration continues to encourage other countries as well as international bodies to do the same. The IHRA working definition is the ‘gold standard.’”
Durakoğlu’s response asserted that, despite embracing the definition, the Biden administration would not attempt to criminalize free speech in any way. “This, however, does not mean we let anti-Semitic speech and other forms of hate speech go unchallenged,” he added.
During his presidential run Biden’s campaign website declared that he would “firmly reject the BDS movement, which singles out Israel — home to millions of Jews — and too often veers into anti-Semitism, while letting Palestinians off the hook for their choices.”
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